Senior Staff Association of Universities of Ghana have declared a total nationwide strike over their poor working conditions.

This follows the government’s failure to honour their demands for better service conditions after a series of protests and negotiations.

Members of the association are expected to withdraw all their services in all public universities of the country effective Monday, September 16, 2024.

According to the group, the government failed to meet their September 16 deadline in implementing their demands despite reaching an agreement.

In a statement signed by its National Chairman, George Ansong, the group indicated that the government reneged on paying them the new rate of vehicle maintenance and related allowances.

They further state that government failed to release their tier 2 deductions to their fund managers since January 2024 as well as recalculating interests on pension allowances from 2010 to 2016.

In January 2024, the association together with other worker unions in universities embarked on a nationwide industrial action over the listed demands.

They rescinded the strike after the government promised to honour their side of the negotiations.

All administrative offices including libraries on campuses of public universities and their hospital facilities and security personnel are expected to be closed on the day. 

The national leadership of the group says they are not ready to call off the strike until their demands are met.

“Therefore, it is hereby directed that all member campuses adhere to this directive strictly,” the statement concluded.

Two Labour Unions in the education sector have warned that they will resort to extreme measures should the government fail to factor their demands into the 2022 budget to be presented to Parliament on Wednesday.

The Unions are; Senior Staff Association of the Universities of Ghana and Teacher and Educational Workers Union (TEWU).

In February this year, the Senior Staff Association of the Universities of Ghana declared an indefinite strike which lasted for over a month following the government’s failure to conclude negotiations on their demand for better conditions of service.

The Association therefore said it will be surprised if government fails to include its demands in the yet-to-be-read budget for 2022.

The National Chairman of the Senior Staff Association of the Universities of Ghana, Zakaria Mohammed, speaking to JoyNews warned that there would be industrial disturbances if agreed conditions of service are not factored into the 2022 budget.

“We have gone through a period of negotiation with government and we have made a lot of agreements and if this doesn’t happen then the government has acted unfairly and there would not be industrial peace in the country in 2022. We believe that Fair Wages and Salaries Commission would submit this to the Ministry of Finance. We will be very shocked if it is not part. In fact, I will be shocked to the bone marrow if our concerns are not captured in the budget,”

The Teachers and Educational Workers Union also embarked on a similar industrial action in February, pressing home their concerns for their conditions of service to be updated having expired over 8 years ago.

The National Chairman, Teacher and Educational Workers Union (TEWU), Ambrose Kwadzodza has also called on the government to do the needful to avert any agitations from the Union.

“Workers should be made better than we are this year in particular. Because this year, we have gone through a lot of turbulent systems. When we go to the table, normally what happens is that they say this is not budgeted for and that unduly prolongs whatever negotiations we are going through. So our expectation is that the budget will be presented in such a way that workers will not be made worse off. We expect the government to do the needful so that workers will not be enraged,” Ambrose Kwadzodza said.